The US Securities and Exchange Commission has officially closed its investigation into Crypto.com, with no action taken against the crypto exchange, according to the firm’s CEO, Kris Marszalek.

It comes seven months after the SEC issued a Wells notice to the crypto platform in August, signaling its intention to take legal action against the firm.

”They used every tool available to attempt to stifle us, restricting access to banking, auditors, investors, and beyond. It was a calculated attempt to put an end to the industry,” Marszalek said in a March 27 X post.

The SEC’s investigation into https://t.co/pFc4Pz9nFR has been closed with no action being taken against https://t.co/pFc4Pz9nFR.

— Kris | Crypto.com (@kris) March 27, 2025

”The fact that we not only persevered but became stronger is a testament to our vision and the community supporting it. Onwards!”

Crypto.com filed a lawsuit against the SEC in October, accusing the Gary Gensler-led commission of overstepping its authority and taking a “misguided” approach to crypto regulation.

This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.

The US Justice Department (DOJ) seized more than $200,000 in cryptocurrency intended to benefit the militant group Hamas it said in a statement on March 27.

The cryptocurrency with a total value of $201,400 was traced to fundraising addresses allegedly controlled by Hamas and used to launder more than $1.5 million in digital assets since October 2024.

The laundering occurred through a series of “virtual currency exchanges and transactions by leveraging suspected financiers and over-the-counter brokers,” the DOJ said. The funds are currently held in a combination of at least 17 wallets.

Affidavit to seize the Hamas-linked cryptocurrency. Source: US DOJ

In January 2024, the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, along with corresponding organizations in the United Kingdom and Australia, announced sanctions against networks and facilitators of crypto transactions linked to Hamas. Those sanctions were built on US Treasury sanctions from October 2023.

In January 2024, three families of victims of the Hamas attack against Israel sued Binance and its former CEO Changpeng Zhao, alleging that the exchange had provided “substantial assistance” to terrorists. In oral arguments, a lawyer representing Binance claimed the exchange had “no special relationship [with] Hamas […].”

Binance has faced scrutiny from the US government over alleged shortcomings in its Anti-Money Laundering controls. The exchange settled with the DOJ for $4.3 billion in November 2023.

More regulation needed?

According to a December 2024 report by the Congressional Research Service, Hamas has allegedly sought cryptocurrency donations since at least 2019, although the “scale and effectiveness” of these efforts have been unclear.

Terrorist organizations using crypto for fundraising have increasingly drawn the attention of the US, with some officials questioning whether the industry needed more supervision or regulation to stop such behavior.

According to a 2023 Chainalysis report, terrorism financing accounts for a very small amount of crypto usage, with illegal groups sticking to using traditional, fiat-based methods to fund operations.

Magazine: Terrorism and the Israel-Gaza war have been weaponized to destroy crypto

The foundation behind the layer-1 blockchain, Sei, announced it was exploring the acquisition of the genetic testing company 23andMe after the firm filed for bankruptcy.

In a March 27 X post, the Sei network said its foundation was considering purchasing 23andMe “to defend the genetic privacy of 15 million Americans” by putting the company’s data on the blockchain. According to the foundation, if it acquires the biotechnology company, it plans to deploy all the genetic information on the blockchain and “return data ownership to users through encrypted, confidential transfers.” 

March 27 X announcing a potential acquisition of 23andMe. Source: Sei Network

“We believe user data sovereignty is a matter of national security,” the Sei network’s announcement reads. “When an American biotech pioneer faces bankruptcy, personal genomic data of millions becomes vulnerable to parties that may not share the same values of transparency and open access.”

The announcement came four days after 23andMe said it filed for Chapter 11 protection in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. The company said at the time there would be “no changes to the way [it] stores, manages, or protects customer data,” which reportedly includes genetic information from roughly 15 million people globally.

Related: Stop giving your DNA data away for free to 23andMe, says Genomes.io CEO

The 23andMe bankruptcy has, for many, reignited concerns about data privacy in an age in which companies have caches of genetic information from millions of people. 

After the bankruptcy announcement, New York State Attorney General Letitia James and California Attorney General Rob Bonta urged 23andMe users to contact the company to delete their personal data, saying they had a right to privacy and to request any DNA samples be destroyed. The two authorities said state laws gave 23andMe users control of their own data. 

The price of the network’s Sei (SEI) token briefly rose from $0.209 to $0.215 after the network’s X post — a roughly 3% increase.

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